The Best Ways to Network as a Student

Among all the valuable lessons and things you learn and acquire at college, connections give place only to actual professional knowledge, and may even overtake it at times. If you were lucky enough to get into a relatively popular school – which means there is a significant part of rich, as well as talented kids there – make sure to use every opportunity to meet new people and make friends. Even acquaintances will do for the purpose of growing your network.

How can you make the connections though? Say you have already signed up to a few clubs and even made friends with fellow students. How to extend your reach and make other people join your little (for now) club? In this blog post, we’ve piled up a few recommendations that may help you (although the actual result will depend on your personality, community and lots of other factors). So, let’s start.

The alumni club is a place to start digging

You would probably look for former graduates after you graduate yourself, but the real time to do it is while still studying. Why? Because it takes away the pressure. After graduation, you will be an active job seeker with the potential of driving people mad. While you are still a student, those who’ve graduated from the same university won’t have problems giving you advice and plunge into pleasant memories (after all, college is the best time of one’s life – would be stupid to doubt it). While getting this kind of information is useful in itself, you can establish a contact with those people and then come back looking for a job with a moral right to do so.

Campus should not be your entire universe

While many colleges prefer to have their campuses shut from the outer world, you shouldn’t be satisfied with it. There are international events held in your field of study where you can meet future colleagues and peers, make useful contacts and if you are especially lucky, get a job or an internship offer. Such events may require some spending, but you can be sure to consider it a strategic investment.

Social networks are not only for stocking your ex

You can hate LinkedIn all you want, but one thing it truly does is unite professionals of a certain field. It won’t harm to follow a few influencers, especially if you will get a chance to be the first to know about internships, news and events. Twitter can be even more useful, offering a lighter and funnier version of professional communication.

Be shameless and use the people you can reach

Do your roommates have parents? Hopefully, they do. So, you can use them to meet useful people and probably find a job. Same as with alumni, it is easier and less awkward to establish relationships with them while you are still a student and not a needy job seeker.

Last but not least: look for internships!

Even more important than the skills, you get contacts during an internship, not to mention that your superiors might feel like keeping you as a permanent employee. Do everything you can to get an internship. Its value cannot be overestimated.

Hopefully, these simple recommendations will help you get the most out of your college years and then use it for a successful employment.